The present invention relates generally to blood products with a binding agent and more particularly to solutions of blood products with a protein binding agent that, when mixed with a hemostatic agent, form a non-liquid material.
Biological glues are used in a number of different applications, such as controlling blood leaks during surgical procedures or for procedures such as angioplasty. Biological glues may also be used for prevention of adhesions as a wound heals, for filling tissue voids or to augment healing. Addition of cellular, biological or pharmaceutical agents to the biological glue or the use of a scaffold with the biological glue may augment the performance of biological glues for specific applications.
Among the best known of biological glues are fibrin-based glues. Fibrin based glues take advantage of the physiological properties of fibrin, namely that the conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin produces a stable fibrin clot. One major advantage of fibrin-based glues is that they may be autologous, using a patient's own blood as the source of the fibrinogen in the fibrin-based glue. However, one problem in using plasma or blood, particularly when concentrated to produce an increased fibrinogen concentration, is the presence of albumin. Some testing has suggested that plasma concentrates attain a maximum mechanical strength at about 3-fold concentration. After reaching this point, the material may become increasingly tacky with minimal increase in cohesion. It is thought that the albumin present with the fibrinogen is partially responsible for this mechanical behavior.
Thus it would be desirable to have a fibrin-based glue that has increased mechanical strength compared to existing blood derived fibrin glues. It would be further desirable to have a more cohesive fibrin-based glue that is not tacky, or for which the degree of tackiness can be controlled by altering the formulation to suit the desired application.